1882.] 



IBN BATUTA IN THE MALDIVES AND CEYLON. 



55 



of djoguis, who did not leave the foot of the hill, waiting for the 

 fall of the leaves of this tree. It is planted in a place where 

 there is no possibility of getting at it. The idolaters retail some 

 fictions concerning it; among them, this—whoever eats of its 

 leaves recovers his youths even should he be an old man. But 

 that is false. 



Under this mountain is a great vale where precious stones 

 are found. Its waters appears to the eye extremely blue. From 

 this we marched for two days as far as the town of Dimmer, a 

 large one, built near the sea and inhabited by merchants.* In a 

 vast temple is seen an idol bearing the same name as the town. 

 In this temple are upwards of a thousand Brahmins and djoguis, 



'Monkey vale' I cannot identify; there is a place in Dolosbage called 

 Wanduru-mdna (' monkey measure'). 



' The vale of bamboos (or reeds)' I should guess to he Rambukpitiya in 

 Upper Bulatgama ; it is of some antiquity and importance, and lies right on the 

 road to Adam's Peak. 



The spot where 'Abu Abd- Allah found his two rubies is probably even yet 

 to be identified by the name Menlk-hambantota ('the gem ford of the foreign 

 trader') on the pilgrim's route. 'The house of the old woman' (A 'chchi-gedara ?) 

 has probably not survived til] our time. The rest of the route lay through ' the 

 wilderness of the Peak,' containing no inhabitants but hermits. The Royal 

 hermit called Sebik I should guess to be ' Raja Savlu (or Sakra) Vije Bahu,' 

 afterwards father of the Sri-Parakrama Bahu VI. (Valentyn, p. 71, and Kavya- 

 sekara, 89.) Of the straggling villages mentioned as halting places on the 

 journey to Dondra, Cormolah is probably Gilimale : Dildineoueh may be either 

 Dinawaka or a Deldeniya; and Atkalandjeh is certainly the Atakalan Korale, 

 the last district ' on the mountain' (i.e., Kanda-uda or in the Uda-rata). 



" The pass would probably be that traversed on the road from Ddpane to 

 U'rubokka, which is the beginning of 'the great vale [leading to Matara] where 

 precious stones are found. Its waters appear to the eye extremely blue' — of 

 course the reference is to the Nilwald-ganga (' blue-cloud-river') — and precious 

 stones are still found there in some quantity (Cf. Pybus' Journey to Kandy, 

 p. 22). Dinew'er is of course Dewi-nuwara, and Kdly, Galle." — B.~\ 



* Dinewar : — Dondra, This magnificent shrine of Vishnu was pillaged 

 and destroyed by the Portuguese under Thome de ,Souza d'Arronches in 1587. 

 (De Couto, Dec. x. ; C. xv.)— Tennent 'Ceylon/ Vol. II., p. 113-4. 



